Being considered a professional is important. But most of us are 'old' professionals, not old in age, but old in thinking style and approach to living. Old professionals separate science and spirit and think in terms of either/or - 'you're either for me, or against me.' New professionals connect science and spirit and think in both/and terms. Please read: The New Professionalism: Connecting Science and Spirit, available at www.WisdomAtWorkUSA.com.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Seek but do not find. The ego keeps us searching, searching for fulfillment, transcendence, meaning, peace, and a place beyond the pain and disappointment, in a place where it knows we can’t find them. We seek but do not find because we are looking in the wrong place – outside instead of inside, with ego instead of spirit.

Peace and forgiveness occur in the heart and mind and nowhere else. Inside, with spirit enfolding me, I know all my searching has been in vain, because I know I was looking where they could not be found. It can be painful to realize this and admit I’ve been wrong my entire life. I have experienced peace and happiness can in the world, but enfolded by spirit I realize those occasions were only when I’d somehow chosen spirit first.

“Real choice is no illusion,” the Course says. “But the world has none to offer. All its roads but lead to disappointment, nothingness and death. Seek not escape from problems here. The world was made that problems could not be escaped. Think not that happiness is ever found by following a road away from it.”

There is a real choice to be made, the only choice really, between the ego and spirit. Everything that keeps me from making that choice, all the clutter in my heart and mind, the fear, anxiety, anger, hatred, and blame, are of the ego, put there to keep me busy and obscure the real choice; to obscure the lucid expression of my oneness with spirit. The clutter can be cleared by paying careful, mindful, non-judgmental attention of my seemingly idle thoughts, realizing I allow them so that the real choice will be kept from me and obscure my reality as spirit.

My one function here, in the world, is choosing to remove the clutter and allow the love just beyond it to shine in, of itself. But I am not the one to actually do this, to remove the clutter and replace it, mine is simply to bring it and all the ego’s illusions to spirit. It’s my choice to be willing to allow my “illusions of purpose” to be replaced by my true function – forgiveness, to have the darkness of my mistakes corrected by the light of my spiritual reality. As I stop trying to resolve my conflicts and the world’s by doing external things, I come to appreciate that the only real conflict is the one in my heart and mind, between spirit and ego.

One of the difficulties in doing this is, as I identify with the ego, I think I really know what happiness is. “Humility, on the other hand, says that we do not understand what will make us happy, but there is one within us who does,” and s/he/it is always ready to bless and guide us whenever and wherever we are ready.

Seek but do not find. The ego keeps us searching, searching for fulfillment, transcendence, meaning, peace, and a place beyond the pain and disappointment, in a place where it knows we can’t find them. We seek but do not find because we are looking in the wrong place – outside instead of inside, with ego instead of spirit.

Peace and forgiveness occur in the heart and mind and nowhere else. Inside, with spirit enfolding me, I know all my searching has been in vain, because I know I was looking where they could not be found. It can be painful to realize this and admit I’ve been wrong my entire life. I have experienced peace and happiness can in the world, but enfolded by spirit I realize those occasions were only when I’d somehow chosen spirit first.

“Real choice is no illusion,” the Course says. “But the world has none to offer. All its roads but lead to disappointment, nothingness and death. Seek not escape from problems here. The world was made that problems could not be escaped. Think not that happiness is ever found by following a road away from it.”

There is a real choice to be made, the only choice really, between the ego and spirit. Everything that keeps me from making that choice, all the clutter in my heart and mind, the fear, anxiety, anger, hatred, and blame, are of the ego, put there to keep me busy and obscure the real choice; to obscure the lucid expression of my oneness with spirit. The clutter can be cleared by paying careful, mindful, non-judgmental attention of my seemingly idle thoughts, realizing I allow them so that the real choice will be kept from me and obscure my reality as spirit.

My one function here, in the world, is choosing to remove the clutter and allow the love just beyond it to shine in, of itself. But I am not the one to actually do this, to remove the clutter and replace it, mine is simply to bring it and all the ego’s illusions to spirit. It’s my choice to be willing to allow my “illusions of purpose” to be replaced by my true function – forgiveness, to have the darkness of my mistakes corrected by the light of my spiritual reality. As I stop trying to resolve my conflicts and the world’s by doing external things, I come to appreciate that the only real conflict is the one in my heart and mind, between spirit and ego.

One of the difficulties in doing this is, as I identify with the ego, I think I really know what happiness is. “Humility, on the other hand, says that we do not understand what will make us happy, but there is one within us who does,” and s/he/it is always ready to bless and guide us whenever and wherever we are ready.

Friday, January 28, 2011

I have a couple of situations I think of as problems, big problems. I know that if I can stop thinking and feeling about these situations as ‘problems’, as something that is difficult for me to deal with, then I might be able to see how to deal with them more effectively. These situations have been with me for awhile and my habitual ways of thinking and feeling about them, which haven’t worked and which have actually progressed the problems, not the solutions, have also been with me for awhile, and have become habitual. When I encounter the situation, I see a problem, something beyond my ability to resolve or even deal with effectively, and feel fear, guilt and inadequacy. What I want to do is think and feel differently when encountering the situation. Let go of it as a problem and allow myself to experience it differently.

It’s trite and clichéd to say I want to experience the situation as an opportunity. But really, that’s what it is – an opportunity to see and feel things differently, to experience spirit working through me, to give spirit a new mold into which to pour itself, to get a different mental/emotional equivalent. What I’ve been doing and how I’ve been doing it, isn’t working. I’d be crazy, and in many respects I am, because I so desperately want to be right, to keep doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result.

But in my most lucid, enlightened moments, and I’m feeling one of those right now, I am completely sure and have positive faith in my relationship to spirit. That It is me and I am It. That It is loving and benign and wants only the best for me, everyone and everything, and that if I get out of Its way and stop forcing It into my problematic mental/emotional equivalents, It will bring Its loving benign reality to fruition. Spirit can only do for me, what I allow it to do thru me.

I now choose to see my so-called ‘problems’ differently, to turn them over to spirit and deal with them from the place of love, wonder and opportunity as spirit thru the still small voice and intuition, guide me to do. I will remember that the ego, which loves problems to keep separate from my spiritual reality, will always speak first and loudest, and when I experience it as doubt, fear, anxiety and problems, I will take a deep breath, center, let go and let God. I’ll keep you informed on my progress.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Well, so far this morning, the ‘choice’ for spirit, I wrote about making yesterday is holding. I feel blessed, open, healthy and optimistic about the day. ‘Choice’ is a word about consciousness, which is really only part of the process of choosing and shifting. There’s an emotional and physical aspect as well. Desire plays a part, as does being mindful of where the resistance to choosing anchors in the body – tightness in my throat. Another key piece is awareness, no more than awareness, the experience of the peace, optimism and even joy that is the alternative to the fear, anxiety and tightness of the ego.

I want, love, do better, feel better am happier and make better contributions to a world that works for everyone when I know and feel – both physically and emotionally, that God is my default; that when I get my bloated nothingness out of the way, the peace, wonder, calm, mental clarity, creativity and joy shine thru.

God and all Its qualities are my, and your, natural condition. Making a meta decision for spirit, recognizing that God is my default, knowing and feeling that at every level and forgiving myself when I forget and get caught up in ego, is the process. It’s a never-ending process, too, and that’s kind of frustrating, when I look at it with the ego. But looking with spirit, each time I catch myself with ego – feeling victimized, fearful and angry, forgive myself and choose to shift to spirit and experience Its reality in and as me, is an opportunity to be renewed, to transcend my limited ego experience and be born again.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I’m alternating between dark despair and being moderately up; between wanting to write this and not wanting to bother; between thinking that maybe, just maybe, perhaps somebody might read it and be helped, and just doing it for myself, as a discipline, whether anybody reads it or not.

As I swing back and forth between these polar opposite ways of being, I experience that what I choose is what I get. But it isn’t a simple choice, like choosing which flavor of ice cream to have. It seems I can choose to feel up, but often it doesn’t hold, and I’m back to negativity.

The choice seems to get made at a deeper level, a conscious but unconscious place. Consciousness is necessary, but not enough. So, at the moment, right now, I’m feeling less hostile and victimized, less despair; so, with the idea that what I experience is feedback about what internal guide I’ve chosen, I guess I’ve chosen spirit instead of ego.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

I’m a victim and I both enjoy it and hate it. I alternate between the two; probably enjoying it, not in an open honest way, more than I dislike it. ‘Enjoy’ isn’t really the right word ‘cause it’s not the same as enjoying sex or food, but in a way it is. The ‘enjoyment’ is tinged with guilt, ‘cause as a spiritual person I know I’m not supposed to feel like a victim or guilty.

The enjoyment comes from unleashing the terror and fear which justifies the nastiness. As a victim I can drop the pretense of niceness and civility and lash out at the sources of my victimization; and they are many: the media, my body, my spouse and kids, my job and society, the other political party. All these victimize me. I’ve got a pain in my left hand right now, and a stomach ache. Damn this body!

Damn this body? But wait, it’s my body. I’m stuck in here, do I really want to damn it? Aren’t I having enough trouble with it now, am I looking for more trouble, isn’t it damned already? Yes…and no. Yes, as long as I continue to think and feel like a victim I am a victim. But if I really don’t like how I feel and what I do from the victim perspective, then I can change it. Lot’s of people are dying of cancer but have swell attitudes. There are veterans with no arms and legs but they still love life. These people don’t see themselves as victims and choose not to feel and act like victims. My shit is petty and nothing compared to that. What about yours?

Monday, January 24, 2011

More inspiration from SOM. We appear to crave food, companionship, security, money, etc. But in truth, these are material substitutes for spiritual connection. What we crave is God – an awareness of our connection with the spirit we sense is already there, within us, but cannot seem to actualize. Like babies who get cranky when they hunger, we get cranky when we don’t get what we know is right there but can’t find. Craving is a nightmare, from which we can awake. In reality, despite appearances to the contrary, the storehouse is full, with enough of everything for everyone.

Of course we need food, companionship, security, money, etc, but the craving arises from lack of connection, when we feel we’re alone and have to do it ourselves. The basis of all healing is a change in belief,” Thomas Troward, one of Ernest Holmes’ greatest inspirations, said. “Things are brought into being, not by will [or craving] but by the power of the self-assertive Truth,” Ernest wrote. “Will power will work, but only for so long. Unless we are willing to surrender to Spirit, we are only promoting the stress of willfulness in our lives,” Celeste Frazier said.

Shifting beliefs to understand that we are already one with all the power there is and that power is neutral and fully responsive to our mental and emotional equivalents, enables us to live fuller lives and contribute to a world that works for everyone and everything. But before we can shift, we have to get that we are attached to a lot of false beliefs and let them go. Some of these are beliefs in lack, scarcity, fear, and ‘original sin’- the essential nastiness of human nature.

These are false beliefs. The idea is to become aware of the alternative to them, that made in the image and likeness of God, human nature is not a dirty word, that we are more like God than not. When I am willing to become more identified with spirit and wholeness, I embrace truth more than old false beliefs. As I surrender my false beliefs, I have room to embody the grace, compassion, abundance and peace that are my God nature.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Ernest Holmes, founder of SOM, said, “That which you are searching for, you are searching with.” Most of us want peace, joy, success, balance, harmony and a world that works for everyone and everything. We just believe it’s not possible. Ernest is saying it is possible and not only that, we already have within, that which we seek without. If we start within, we’ll see it without. If we stop believing in two powers, the one loving power will manifest.

Situations, indeed, all of life, is neutral. It’s not for us or against us [although I prefer to think of It as for us]. It is we who assign meaning, label things and experiences as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ The Law of Mind does not know the difference between a ‘good, constructive thought’ and a ‘bad, destructive one’ any more than the soil knows the difference between a flower seed or a weed. It just works on the thought/seed/info given it and grows the corresponding form.

If we want things to be different we’ve got to plant different thought and emotional seeds. Our thought/feeling seeds are mental equivalents reproducing themselves in form. Like a jello mold shapes jello, they give life the shape we see. Use a different mold, get a different shape. As soon as we shift our mental/feeling equivalents, our lives shift. This is the day to do it. “This is the day the Lord hath made,” says the Bible, not yesterday, not tomorrow, now, today. Our mental and emotional equivalents shape our reality, now. Change begins, not by wishing, hoping and waiting, but by shifting our inner reality from the ego to spirit.

My only point of power is within me in the present moment. Knowing this in my gut and heart, I get goose bumps and can feel the peace of this understanding spread over me. Let go of all seeming difficulties and know that as spirit, you are greater than any seeming difficulties.

This is all you need do, nothing else. Justice without judgment is automatic. Get your bloated nothingness out of its way and the Universe will continue to balance itself out. Yesterday can do nothing for us today. Just stay present today, now, and let go of the blame and shame. Fear and Love are incompatible. It’s one or the other. Let go of the fear and the love will shine through. As your joy goes forth unbounded, you show up differently. Tomorrow takes care of itself when you’re operating from the inside out with a different set of mental and emotional equivalents.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Course in Miracles says we have a split mind divided between spirit and ego. We can choose whether to identify with ego and see ourselves as living in a state of near constant anxiety, fear and vulnerability or with spirit in a state of peace, harmony and balance. It is not true that we are at the mercy of things beyond us which we cannot control. I am a spiritual being having an earthly experience. I have tried to give my inheritance away in exchange for the world I see, yet spirit keeps my inheritance safe for me.

What spirit has willed for me, my inheritance of peace, joy, balance, and creativity, is mine. My perceptions reflect my self-image as either a child of God or a child of the ego. To access my inheritance and experience God’s will for me I first have to let go of my identification with ego, my attack thoughts, my belief that I am separate from spirit and the sin, guilt and fear that arise from that belief. “If I would remember who I am, it is essential that I let this image, the ego image, of myself go. As it is replaced by truth, vision,” is given me and, “I will look upon the world and on myself with charity and love.

Our perceptions reflect our self image, and vision corrects the vicious and fearful misperceptions of the ego, replacing them with perceptions of our true identity as spirit. Vision thus undoes the ego thought system. The ego always speaks first, in judgment, fear and anxiety. Spirit will, if we let It, reverse the ego’s judgment, much as an appeals court reverses the judgment of a lower court. The ego’s decisions are always wrong because they are based on the error that it is us, that we are not first spiritual beings.
The ego’s voice and the ego’s gifts of attack, disease, fear, suffering, death, murder and judgment are covering something else. To access our real thoughts, we first have to let go of our unreal ones. We have to go through the work of acknowledging we were wrong to rely on the ego, realizing there is an alternative and then choosing it. This is difficult and it is a process. It will not happen all at once. But now at least we are aware of what it is we choose between. There is another thought system in our minds and we choose between appearance and reality.

Thus do we see a world reflecting back to us the radiant reality of God’s love. God is in everything I see because God is in my mind. In my own mind, behind all my insane thoughts of separation and attack, is the knowledge that all is one forever. I have not lost the knowledge of who I am because I have forgotten it. It has been kept for me in the mind of spirit. To lose something does not mean it has gone. It merely means I do not remember where it is. Now we know where it is - in our split minds. “The Father keeps what He created safe. You cannot touch it with the false ideas you made, because it was created not by you. Let not your foolish fancies frighten you. What is immortal cannot be attacked; what is but temporal has no effect.”

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The 1/10 edition of the Monitor quotes Andrew Cohen in the Ottawa Citizen.
“It isn’t hard, if you try, to see the great republic in eclipse. In the meantime, things are happening in the US that defy conventional wisdom. That much divided, derided Congress was the most productive in a generation. In the last two years, it passed legislation on health care, financial regulation, food safety standards, credit cards and student loans. In the pas two month, it repealed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ extended the Bush tax cuts and ratified a new arms control treaty with the Russians.” Sometimes you just need to step back and away to see things more clearly.

MLK was not the only one to have a dream, we all have them. The difference between MLK and others like him, Gandhi, Sarah Palin (?) and John Boehner (?), and you and me, is that those people chose to own their dreams, to make them come alive. We can make that choice, too, to commit to our dreams and make them come alive. Don’t be jealous of those whose dreams come true; they merely said “Yes!” you and I said, “maybe later.” If I’m given a dream with an idea that strongly resonates, the Universe is also giving me everything necessary for the fulfillment of Its idea.

Emma Curtis Hopkins, the founder of Christian Science, has God saying: “Thou canst not behold Me with they two outer eyes: I have given thee an eye divine” – intuition. Intuition, dreams and other still, small inner voices for spirit are speaking all the time. If we be still and get our bloated nothingness out of the way, we could catch the idea that spirit is seeking to reveal and express through us.

Unless and until we recognize that truth exists, that there is another, better thought system in our minds, we cannot make ourselves available to receive it. We can become better receivers and revealers by reprogramming our minds to quiet down and listen more carefully, by turning away from what we don’t want - lack, limitation, fear, hate and blame, acknowledging these as mere temporary conditions, and focusing instead on what we do want – peace, joy, harmony and a world that works for everyone and everything; by energetically embodying and becoming the very things that we seek to have.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

For most of my elementary and junior high school daze, my report cards almost always said, “Could do better.” I accepted that, because it always seemed to me doing well in school was a trade-off, there was always something better to do than study, a habit which has persisted. It’s kind of like that now with applying the spiritual ideas and feelings I’m growing to love, in my day-to-day, minute-to-minute life. I could do better, but get distracted, big time, by all the fun positive and nasty negative physical experiences.

Intellectually, I know the fun positive experiences come from the same source as the nasty negative experiences –the inner guide/teacher I choose to identify with. With spirit, experiences tend to be fun and positive, reflecting that reality, really, the only reality. With ego, I still can have positive fun experiences, but they’re not as rich, but mostly, I have nasty negative ones. I’m wanting to learn to use the experiences I have as feedback about who I’ve chosen to be with inside. Then, without blaming, judging and beating myself up, if the experience isn’t what I want, simply choose the other guide. There are only two, you know, two guides, and I’m always with one or the other, spirit or ego.

I want spirit to be my constant internal reference point and take the externals simply as feedback, not judgments, punishments or rewards. When I’m inner aware and focused on spirit, and do not require a particular outcome to manifest, fear has no identifiable entry point. I want to really feel what Terry Cole-Whittaker said about relying on outside outcomes, “What you think of me is none of my business.”

I want my focus to be on what spirit thinks through me, on my intuitive awareness feeling and insight – which, with its omniscient omnipresence is always the best for all concerned. Right now, I know that the purpose of my life is to reveal God as completely as possible. Will I know that five minutes, or five hours from now, or when it takes 20 minutes to bring breakfast, as it did this morning? Probably not; could do better.

Friday, January 14, 2011

But first a rant. I got an email from one my anti-American, pro-socialist commie, liberal groups that said after only ten daze, the new Republican dominated House is already turning back all the funding for science research, as the Bushies did, trying to re-establish abstinence only funding, de-funding the EPA, boosting coal and oil, cutting back on those god-awful regulations that pathetically try to protect people, nature and the planet, but fail to protect big business and its monopolies. All once again showing that we have the best government money can buy; and at bargain prices, too. Imagine, a lousy campaign contribution of $5K to a Congressman, buys tax breaks, rules or regulations that reap millions in profits.

Ah, that didn’t help. I feel angrier. Well, here’s what I really, really want to appreciate: Infinite Intelligence is ever giving its perfection to me, the bought and paid for and misguided House members and those that buy and pay for them. With each new breath we take, comes an opportunity to choose again. With each inhalation, the Kingdom of Heaven is downloading into me, and you, and them, connecting with the software already installed. Every moment gives us the opportunity to catch a new, loving, all inclusive, non-blaming and attacking divine idea. God’s flow is not restricted. My awareness of Her flow increases with each conscious breath I take. In every moment we get to choose and to make a contribution to a world that works for everyone and everything, not just for a few.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

“It is better…to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” Gandhi.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Judeo/Christian Bible

Mostly we act from our heads, rather than our hearts. If we have a real “heart-to-heart” conversation with someone, not an ego dump we call heart-to-heart, it’s God talking to God. Thinking from the heart space, we’re able to see spirit in everyone and everything. It’s the experience of not doubting or questioning or CYAing, it’s the experience of knowing and of being the answer, not the question.

From the heart space comes intuition and compassion, wholeness and love, truth and wisdom. This is what comes from a whole and hungry heart, not an angry, shriveled and broken heart. Having a heart is not the same as owning a heart.

Our heads dominate and overrule our hearts, doubting, questioning and shriveling them, cutting us off from love and intuition. The head has a place, but that place is as a partner to the heart, rather than its ruler. The pure in heart see God – everywhere, in everyone and everything. Solomon asked for an understanding heart and was also given success in every aspect of his life.

I want to own my heart space so well, that more and more, I see spirit everywhere, in everyone and everything. I want that to be the rule, not the exception, the habit, not the wish.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

When evil men (and women) burn and bomb,
good men (and women) must build and bind.

When evil men (and women) shout ugly words of hatred,
good men (and women) commit themselves to the glories of love.

Where evil men (and women) would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo,
good men (and women) must seek to bring into being a real order of justice."
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
and from the SOM reading for today:

“No appearance can prevent us from arriving at the realization of our innate perfection and beauty.” Michael Beckwith

“The principle governing faith is that when the one praying becomes convinced, his prayer will automatically be answered.” SOM p. 157

I enjoy turning within and allowing my body, the physical manifestation of the spirit to which I turn, to heal itself. I also use vitamins, exercise and doctors. Because spirit’s givingness is everywhere equally present, there are many methods by which divine wholeness is revealed.

I do not ignore the physical conditions, the death, horror and destruction, disease, hate and blaming, but I realize that the opposites of these things are also true and so I focus on them. I give thanks for the realization that the wholeness, beauty, health and goodness in us as individuals, communities and a nation are greater than any condition. That is why it is called a ‘condition,’ it is not permanent, will pass, like clouds across the face of the sun, but the innate inherent reality of life as spirit, is the sun and will never pass, because no matter how dark the night, the sun is shining somewhere.

When we release our attachment to conditions and physical reality, to matter and material forms, we automatically come into direct contact with wholeness itself. We need to let appearances and conditions pass and allow the systems for healing that we already have within us as individuals, communities and a nation to flow forth. We need to say Enough! to what isn’t working and choose what will work, what deep down we know will work; what every prophet and teacher from Moses, thru Jesus to Gandhi and MLK has told us will work.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” MLK

“I am the light of the world.” SOM p.477

Ernest Holmes reminds as he quotes John 8:12 that to say “I am the light of the world” does not refer to one’s human personality, but to one’s divine essence, the principle inherent in each of us, not just Jesus, but everyone, and indeed, everything. When I understand and live this inner principle, I am radiating the light of life. A mere glimpse of this reality illumines my whole being and the world around me.

My direct experience of this, activates it in my life. When I realize the truth of my being, I recognize the one life that runs through everyone and everything. Light is the revelation of divine creative energy that called all life into being. God said, “let there be light” and there was light.

I am light, you are light, the shooter in Tucson, his victims and all those that neglected his mental condition and created the climate that nourished him, are light. We want to let our light shine and not hide it under a basket, because loving and letting our light shine is the most natural thing in the world. We want to so let it shine that all may see our good works and glorify our source and be inspired to do likewise.

When I love my brother, I am abiding in the light. I want to give my love and let others feel it. I want my vibration to be resonating with everyone and everything around me, long after I have left the room, the building, the city and the planet. I must share the vibration within me, as you must, too, it is why we have come, so that when others see us they will know who sent us.

Monday, January 10, 2011

AOL chose to feature as “opinion” a so-called op ed piece from a London newspaper headlined, “Quit blaming the right” for the tragedy in Tucson. Why did AOL choose to publish that? Why did they go all the way to England for it? The usual BS about it being ‘newsworthy’ or balanced or an alternative, doesn’t hack it. The sheriff of Tucson said it all, the climate of hate is fertile ground for weak and distressed minds. And in spite of the so-called ‘main stream’ media’s penchant for crying a plague on both your houses and suggesting that liberal, progressive and democratic rhetoric is just as bad as so-called ‘conservative,’ tea party, republican rhetoric, just ain’t so and the facts belie it.

What is AOL trying to prove, suggest, put over is the name of so-called ‘fairness’ and balance? The facts are pretty clear. All the hate and anger spewing forth and getting undeserved coverage, aside from the fact that if it bleeds, it leads, comes pretty much from one side. When will the so-called ‘main stream’ media tell it like it is? Apparently never as long as their corporate owners answer to no one, especially not to the silent majority, hungering for peace, reconciliation, information and real news, not opinion masquerading as news. Enough! Please, in the name of humanity, enough!

Friday, January 7, 2011

“Love is the central flame of the universe…the very fire itself,” Ernest Holmes, SOM’s founder says. It’s our natural state, it’s spontaneous, we can’t help being loving beings because God is love and we are made in the image and likeness of God. “We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken,” Emerson says; and further, our intellect and powers increase with affection.

“I remember younger days,” Celeste Frazier writes, “when love seemed easier. Perhaps I have become jaded from the dust and grit of the journey, and while love is not dismissed, I give more credence to safety and decorum. I reality though, were I to reveal the very fire of my being, I would no more be consumed than the bush at Mount Sinai. In fact, I would recognize my holiness more clearly. There is nothing more important than to love. Unless I am loving, I am being untrue to myself.”

Thursday, January 6, 2011

So, “the day the house fell on my sister was a sad day indeed.” Is Glinda sending mixed messages to the Universe, to the One Source? Why don’t I feel she’s sincere, here? Is it because, that’s not the way I’d say it if a house fell on my sister? Is there a lack of congruence there, or am I just projecting it? Probably both. But then, too, there’s a simple mindedness, a clean, uncluttered statement of fact that’s appealing.

I find that most of the time, I’m sending mixed messages, contradictory requests to the one source. And since we get back what we identify with most strongly, it’s little wonder that life is full of ups and downs. One minute wanting the source to bring peace and happiness, the next, excitement and passion. One minute wanting to be right and do it alone, without help; the next, wanting to be wrong and begging god for help. Who I am as spirit, my true reality, does not always match what I do as a human being dreaming I’m in a body.

Since today is the Feast of the Epiphany [I didn’t know that!], the day the Magi gave their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, to the newly born Christ, I thought it might be fun to explore the metaphysical interpretation of this myth. First, the Christ – universal love, joy, compassion and acceptance, is born in me, and you, whenever we turn to it, invite it and become aware of its Presence.

We need do nothing to earn it, it’s not a reward, it’s our birthright. Say this with me: I now accept the riches, wisdom, the peace and spiritual transcendence the three wise men and their three gifts represent. They are bringing their gifts to me – me! The spiritual aspect of me celebrates its rebirth, minute to minute, not just at Christmas. I humbly accept the newness of my life and my ability to contribute to a world that works for everyone and everything!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

“The day the house fell on my sister, was a sad day indeed!” Glinda, Good Witch of the East

“Everything comes out in the end. If things are not good, it’s not the end.” Anon

The quote from Glinda just tickles me. I love it, love saying it, hearing it, seeing it. It’s so nonsensical and so obviously possibly true for her in a distant, non-involved way. Perhaps I like it ‘cause I’d like to take things more this way.

The quote about the end has a paradoxical quality. Like we all want to be re-assured, but re-assurance is not possible, or if it is, only temporary. Also, I, and I think most of us, are concerned about the end. Maybe it’s the Judeo/Christian thing about the ‘final reward.’ A related aphorism – “It ain’t over ‘till the fat lady sings,” refers to the end of church services in old time African American churches.

“What’s it all about, Alfie?” Life goes on all around and within us and is not limited by our poor capacity to understand. In fact at the deepest level, our understanding is not necessary. All we need is the experience of our reality as spirit. Of course, we’re primarily mental so the experience is not enough. But if we could let it be we would know that “everything comes out in the end and if things are not good, it’s not the end;” that we don’t have to know what its all about to live it well; and we could take things so lightly that even if the house falls on us, it’s only a sad day indeed, not the end of the world.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

“Let us learn to be still and let the Truth speak through us; to be still and know that the inner light shines.” SOM Text p369

“I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light.” Issac Newton

Whole brained thinking is what these quotes are about. Keeping the “inquiry constantly before me,” is the logical right brain, and going “past the turbulence to connect with the infinite,” being patient and full of faith in the infinite and our intuitive connection to it is allowing the “first dawning to open gradually, little by little, into a full and clear light.” The Mind of God is with us, right now, right where we are, wanting us to awake to its presence and claim Its support.

Meditation on this gracious always available reality within ourselves and everyone, allows It to guide, guard and protect us. It is always doing that, even when we think It isn’t, even when we have seeming difficulties. Letting go of what we think we should want or do, allows It to fulfill our deepest needs and wants in a way that is best for all concerned, in a way that is beyond our ability to figure out and process all the variables involved.

You don’t go to the grocery store with a full cart, why go to God with a heart and mind full of fear, doubt and confusion? Let go of all of that, become empty and allow spirit to fill you; make room. If you want something new, you’ve got to make room. Empty all your mental and emotional closets and make room for the highest and best. Go past the turbulence to the stillness. Open your mind, hands and heart and slip down deep to allow the natural spiritual reality to shine through.

Monday, January 3, 2011

For the week of 12/20, The Monitor’s – Christian Science Monitor, cover story was children and spirituality. Asking if according to the most recent data, only 20%-40% of Americans attend worship services, how do the majority of people help their children when children ask the big questions about faith, the meaning of life, evil and our place in the cosmos?

“If faith had a material origin and relied on a material God, it would be difficult to sustain faith in an entity that is so limited” as to be “inherently finite. How would a finite God remain relevant through changing times? A void between Creator and creation might open. However, what if faith…didn’t start with a” finite, historical “person? What if it starts with Spirit, and if creation is actually spiritual and infinite?

“’A saving faith comes not of a person, but of Truth’s presence and power,’” Mary Baker Eddy wrote. “If faith ‘comes not of a person,’ it also comes not of a religious institution of persons. It doesn’t even come from all religious institutions collectively. Faith comes from the timeless presence of the power of indestructible Truth. That’s why faith is a present possibility here in the high tech world, just as it was in biblical days.”
Such ‘faith is within reach to help both the religious and the nonreligious.” Such “faith is at hand to help one discover meaningful, even healing answers to life’s deepest questions.” We are of God right now, not when we die; the kingdom of heaven is within us, not in the sky. Biological research shows that humans are designed to embody faith in a power for good. For people with no religious training, this inclination toward faith may be latent and untapped, but it’s still there.

“So, it makes sense for those moved to pray to do so.” The prayer can be on behalf of one’s self, humanity as a whole, institutions, ideals or whatever; simple gratitude for the sky or birds or trees or someone’s smile. These ‘prayers’ arise like blossoms from the incipient faith already there, within. The more we allow such spontaneous gratitude and recognition of our connectedness with all that is, the more it will develop “into a transforming power, a healing force. It does this one heart at a time.”

Thus, even if society has no formal mechanism for supporting and developing faith, faith manifests and is nurtured.

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About Me

Writing metaphysical novels is my avocation. Coaching people to get, as Emerson said, "their bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits," is a joy. Bike riding outdoors is an experience of the magnificence that we all have always present within and outside of us.